address ), through the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity (or in safety ), and her cities round about her, and the South and the lowland were inhabited? " the three districts named being those into which the land of Judah was divided, namely, the Negebh, which is " the southern district," extending as far as Beersheba (Josh. xv. 21); the Shephelak, or "lowland" district, toward the west; and the "hill country of Judah," which is here included under " Jerusalem and the cities round about."
There are many Scriptures in the former prophets which bear witness to the truth of what Zechariah here affirms, namely, God's repudiation of mere outward acts of religious observances, and particularly of fasting, as being in any way pleasing to Him. " Wherefore have we fasted," we read, for instance, in Isa. Iviii., " and thou seest not? Wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and Thou takest no knowledge? " Then the answer, which is very much the same as in Zechariah, " Did ye at all fast unto Me, even Me? " " Behold in the day of your fast, you find your own pleasure. . . . Ye shall not fast as ye do this day to make your voice to be heard on high. Is it such a fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, and to spread sackclotJi and ashes under him? Wilt thou call this a fast, and an accept able day to the Lord?" (Isa. Iviii. 35).
But it is quite true, as another writer observes, that reference is here made, not so much to the passages in the former prophets, in which fasting is specially referred to (as, e.g., the one from Isaiah just quoted) as to those numerous Scriptures in which the general principle was taught which was enunciated by Samuel in his question, " Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt-offering and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord?" (i Sam. xv. 22, 23); or, as set forth in the words of the great lawgiver, " And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and
